30 weeks and some rocking out

Axel tried out Dad's studio for him, and he had so much fun, that he even decided to dance, which is a new thing for him, and takes A LOT of courage.


I wanted to document my pregnancy with the people I have been pregnant with this time around. I was pretty bad about taking pictures of my belly with Axel, but even worse with this one.

So here I am with some of my pregnant posse at 30ish weeks.

Last Tuesday I took this picture with Ashley at her surprise Baby Shower I helped throw for her
Does everyone agree that I look like I could go into labor any minute? You wouldn't believe we were only a week a part by this picture. Or that two days later this picture was taken...


This is me at a Relief Society Birthday dinner with my Friend/neighbor Kirsten. Our babies are only 3 days a part, and we are both having girls this time. This picture made me feel better knowing that most of my baby bump in the above picture was due to my dress. ha ha

But I also feel like both the ladies in these pictures wear pregnancy better than I do. Aren't they both just glowing? How do I get that "pregnancy glow" everyone talks about.

Nesting

I have been "nesting" like crazy, pulling out all of Axel's old newborn stuff, going through it, organizing it, cleaning it, and getting ready for his little baby sister to meet us in 10 weeks!(Maybe a few less)

One of the things I feel is a must for a baby, is a car seat cover, you have all seen them I am sure. When I had Axel they were just popping up, my friend Ashley convinced me to make one for him because she loved hers so much, and she was right. We got together one summer afternoon and she helped me.

I used mine for the first 3 months of his life and loved it. I never had to worry about strangers peering, touching, coughing or spreading their "Swine Flu" or RSV to him. (when we had him, it was "Swine Flu" fever, you couldn't go anywhere with out being reminded that you may or may not get sick and die. Everywhere I went there was a bottle of antibacterial soap on every counter, and hospitals weren't even letting children come visit newborns).

So, I was soo glad to have mine. It also worked great for a sun shade for him for all our family walks. (we used to be big family walkers, something we think we'll start doing again soon now that the studio is....done!)Anyway, I am not supposed to blog about the studio, (but it does look super fantastic.) I am sure Kory will blog about it one day...

I have heard a lot of people complain about their car seat covers since then, but I never had a problem with mine, maybe it was Ashley's clever design, it was the perfect cover and perfect size. But Axel's was very boyish, with punk stars and checker board fabric, so I decided to make Dani her own so people wouldn't think she was a boy, since her name wouldn't help with that either.

You will notice I made it with pale blue, and it's Grey not black, I just can't move away from blue. I can't see myself toting around anything pink, clothes are fine on our baby, but you can find pretty feminine prints in other colors these days. And I thought doing the ruffles on it would make it ultra feminine. What do you think?

Also, our car seat didn't come with anything to protect his little neck from getting scratched by the belt, so after a few of his first trips in the car I threw together some and they worked out great. But somewhere I lost one of them so I made a new pair to match her cover for baby girl. And they are reverse-able! SNAP, I am so clever...
When I saw this car seat all cleaned and ready to go, it kinda made me choked up thinking about bringing a new baby into the world, and carrying her home in this some day. I remember bringing Axel home it was such an amazing day...but also full of the "unknown" but it all worked out.


I also made up another little summer dress for her. This one I think will fit her as a newborn a little better. :) (In case any of you are wondering I altered the yellow dress to fit her better for this summer hopefully. I took it in quite a bit and it looks like it may just fit a small newborn now) We will see.
It only took me under 3/4 of a yard of fabric so it was just under 5 dollars to make, it did take a night or two to make, but worth the time. I went to Park City with a few friends the other day and fell in love with about a dozen of the dresses at Old Navy. They were all over 15, but they were all so cute, and tiny and delicate, but obviously I couldn't get any of them. I'm an if its over 5 dollars for kids clothes I just can not justify buying it. And I am pretty good about shopping the clearance rack and finding jammies and tees for a buck. But everything was soo soo SOO adorable.

The top ties around her shoulders, I am sure it would make sense on her

So we are getting closer and closer to being ready, I feel better now that I have a couple of the important stuff cleaned. We have a lot to go on the bigger stuff like the kids room and such but that is something Kory has to do not me. I just get to nag him. :)

I have a whole lot more dresses cut out and ready to be sewn together for this weekend, however turns out Axel has Strep! It was the weirdest thing too, it came out of nowhere, one minute he was running around playing the next he was asking to go to bed, and spiked a fever of 103, then he was having a hard time breathing while he tried to sleep. So we were kinda worried. We took him in only because it was very out of the ordinary for him, but I am soo glad we did, except for when he threw up all over Kory in the waiting room, or when he screamed bloody murder when the nurse tried to put the oxygen sensor on his foot. But he ended up falling asleep in my arms in the room to me singing to him some of his Backyardigan songs, even in his delirious state he couldn't help but say "ARRR" at his favorite part. Bless his heart. After a very long nap he seems to be feeling better, hopefully in a day or two he will be back to his happy self.

A Pirate says...

This weekend was my nephew Nicolas' birthday at Pirate Island. He turned 5!!! Happy Birthday buddy, he was suffering from Birthday expectation overload a bit, and kept asking his mom if they could go home. I think mostly because the restaurant told him they were going to bring him his present, and gave him a huge stack of tickets. And he just sat there, head down soo sad. I think he thought that was it for his gifts. We all thought it was pretty funny, but he did not. But he cheered up eventually.

The Party Guests...minus a couple overstimulated toddlersLiam

Hinkley

Hilary called me the morning of asking for help with his birthday cake, this is what we came up with impromptu and we think it turned out pretty cute.

Blowing out his candles... I still can't believe he is 5!

Axel and I have been to Pirate Island before, when he was super tiny, but this was his first time since his fascination with pirates began, and Kory's first time too. We were pretty excited to take him and fill his belly full of pizza, candy, and cake and to just let him go pirate crazy. He had a nice long 3 hour nap before so he was full of energy and super excited and totally diggin the pirate scene. It was also so nice to have Kory there to chase him and entertain him. I am glad he was able to come, it made it way easier for me.

Axel loved the pirate ship playground. This is how he starts to slide...This is how he ends it...everytime

He would play with the wheel and yell "ARRGH ARRGH!" and "A SHIP! A SHIP" and "A PIRATE SHIP"

Like a true Pirate he commandeered this ride on multiple occasions. Don't worry we chipped in sometimes too. And of course we spent most of our treasure on the basketball gameBut my favorite part is where we encouraged him to cheat while the lady next to us got mad at her kids for doing the same thing. Whose kid is this? whoops! In our defense he wasn't gaining any points by cheating...So no harm done right?

P is for Potty

Axel has started to pick up on the potty thing. Saying things like "Ah Sick" when Kory and I are sitting on the loo, or running to the bowl after we do our business to see what we put in there. So we thought it would be good to get him his own potty.

He was pretty excited about it and went right up to it and said "PEE PEE PEE" and stood in front of it.

He also turned around sat down and made a big GRUNT!

GREEN WITH ENVY

I love St. Patrick's Day, it's such a fun way to get creative with your food...even if it is less than appetizing when you are through. :)

Ash and I have been trying to get a play group together with some of our family members. But it is just not working out thus far. We were really looking forward to the activity we had planned for ST. Patrick's Day, but then just like all the other weeks, one by one everyone canceled. Which is totally fine, we understand totally, you all read my blog, I am really not bothered. But we were kinda disappointed this week because we were looking forward to it.

But then it hit us, we could invite our friends instead, since we also share the same group of girlfriends. It was kinda last minute, and some weren't able to join us, but Janae and her darling daughter Jade joined us and it was sooo fun, it's funny because we haven't done much with Janae and the last time we saw her was a year ago, but just this week we met up with her to do some shopping at the outlets and hang out at her house in Park City. Can I just say it's so nice that we can go years with out seeing our friends and then meet up and it's like no time has passed, (well sorta, the kids seem to always grow a foot or two :) ) I am grateful for my "low maintenance" friends.

Anyway, so we got together for a ST. Patrick's Day Lunch and Play date at Ashley's house. We had quite the spread of green food, which included, MAC and CHEESE, green fruits and veggies, and chips and Guacamole, followed by scrumptious mini ice cream cookie sandwiches rolled in sprinkles! The kids loved the food, and so did the mommies.

The kids also colored a cute ST. Patrick's Day coloring page, and we ended with making Apple jack necklaces(I thought there would be more green in them than fruit loops but it was 90% orange). The moms made the necklaces while the kids just ate the apple jacks.

When we left our tummies were full and our tongues were green! But it was such a fun day.

I even packed a "green" lunch for Kory to eat at work, filled with a turkey sandwich on green bread, sugar snap peas and green grapes. His response: "SICK IT'S MOLDY", yeah it wasn't the most appetizing looking sandwich, and I knew he would say that, but still a fun way to embrace this holiday.

Then that night following a family tradition from my family, I made green pancakes for dinner (I wasn't in the mood for eggs or ham.) Hope you all had a GREAT ST PATRICK'S DAY and aren't too "Green" with envy that ours was so fantastic :)

And some pictures for you to enjoy!

our grub

The Green Mac and Cheese only made Jade hesitant to eat it, which we were all kinda laughing about because we kinda felt the same way, but Axel and Ashdon seemed to like it even MORE!

The beautiful Miss Jade, this girl sure has grown up quickly! Ash and I couldn't believe she is 5

Axel LOVED Ashley's Ice cream sandwiches

Ashdon is always such a good sport about saying "Cheese" for the camera! and his hands were SO green!

Axel attempting to wear his necklace..

mammer and basketball

We went to Lowe's this weekend to pick up some trim for the studio, and they just so happened to be holding their kids class, that just so happened to be building basketball hoops! SWEET

Axel loves Hammers "mammers" I think mostly because his Dad and Grandpa always use hammers, and he LOVE's working on our house with them.

And he LOVES basketballs. So it was a win win for him. He was all smiles even though we woke him up to do so. Which is why his hair is sticking out in most of the pictures.

We kinda lucked out since you usually have to sign up online for their class, but that particular day they just had extras.

Hammering away

Checking out the plans with dad
THEN on Monday for FHE we had a real treat, Kory's boss gave up his Jazz tickets, and normally Kory and I would probably have passed on it but since Axel is obsessed with basketball we decided to go to the game and bring Axel along with us.

He actually really enjoyed it for the first half, he was in basketball heaven. I think the noise got to him a bit, and he was confused why people were booing so much.

But then we made the mistake of taking him out for his not even that poopy diaper, thinking it was bugging the guy next to us, only to find out that guy just sits like that. And Axel found the gift shop and all the fun basketballs out there and decided he would rather play then watch. It was also getting close to bedtime so after halftime we headed to our car.

Axel loved walking around in Salt Lake, he loved the Trax and the lights and the beeping of the street signs. Kory and I were debating about taking him on Trax to the Temple and back and while discussing Axel said "Temple, Temple, Temple" Over and over, such a smart boy. We decided to save that adventure for another day, and just walk through that planet place on the corner instead. I can not for the life of me remember what it is called.

We also anticipated he would crash on his way home, so we got him in his jammies and even brought a bottle, but he stayed up the whole way home. Stinker

But it was a good night.
We have had quite an adventurous week this week, but I will save that for another day, keep the 3 of you that read my blog on your toes, and give you something to read tomorrow...I'm a giver like that. :)

Talk about a miracle!

Ok, before you do anything else go Read this.

So I may be late to the party on this one, Kory sent it to me this morning and I pretty much bawled my eyes out when I read it, but I also was soooo happy for that family. Amidst all this tragic sadness, talk about a freaking miracle!

Can you imagine that poor little baby? How tiny and how scared, going without food, or her parents for days? And in all that water? I can just imagine how exhausted and fatigued she must have been when they found her. But also can you imagine the angels that were surrounding her to keep her alive through all that? It is absolutely amazing.

And not to mention the moment she was reunited with her parents. If they have that reunion on video I don't think I could watch it without crying for weeks over it. I can not imagine what those parents were feeling as they realized their baby was gone, and then to find out she lived and overcame all that? I mean can you imagine!?!?!

Thoughts?